James PuahCan you use your Australian super for your house deposit?
As a mortgage adviser, it’s a question that pops up quite often.
Obviously, a lot of Kiwis go across the ditch to Australia to work for periods of time. And as they are working in Australia, they are also contributing to the Australian superannuation schemes.
In New Zealand, when we contribute to KiwiSaver (our superannuation scheme) we can then use a withdrawal to help fund our deposit on our first home.
We can only do that once, but it certainly has helped a number of Kiwis get into their first homes when otherwise they would not have had a deposit to do so.
Can You Use Your Australian Superannuation?
In Australia, the contribution rate to superannuation is much higher than in New Zealand currently at a rate of 11% but increasing to 12% in June 2025. Therefore in addition to earning a lot more in Australia, your contributions to superannuation are higher too.
This means that even over a short period of time your superannuation balance can grow significant and in a reasonably quick timeframe too.
So when those people move back from Australia to New Zealand and want to purchase a home, they want to access this as they would with their KiwiSaver.
Once the balance has been transferred to your KiwiSaver scheme, it is generally subject to New Zealand’s retirement savings rules. However, there are some specific rules that apply to money transferred from an Australian super fund. For example, Australian-sourced savings held in KiwiSaver schemes cannot be used to purchase your first home.
People in this situation are often a little upset that they can access their KiwiSaver, but they cannot access their Australian superannuation.
If you cannot access it now for your first home deposit, is it just worth forgetting about it and leaving it for your retirement?
Should You Leave Your Australian Super in Australia?
Even though you may not be able to use your Australian-sourced savings (superannuation) to purchase your first home, the question then is should you leave this in Australia or transfer this back to your KiwiSaver in New Zealand?
Firstly remember that every investment scheme and superannuation scheme attracts management fees from the provider, which effectively means that you are paying the provider for looking after and managing your money. Obviously, you would hope that the returns that they can generate exceed any management costs – but regardless, there’s always a management cost.
In most cases, it would be wise to consolidate any superannuation schemes you have into a single superannuation scheme to minimise the costs.
Also by transferring your Australian superannuation scheme into your KiwiSaver does not mean that you can then withdraw it to be used for your first home, but it does mean that any returns you make on those investments can be added to whatever you can withdraw.
For example, if you had the equivalent of NZD$50,000 in your Australian superannuation scheme and you transfer that into your KiwiSaver scheme and then got an investment return over the next 12 months of say 6%, then you will have an additional $3,000 that you can withdraw for your first home deposit.
That helps a bit.
How To Transfer Your Australian Super to Your Kiwisaver
It’s a bit of a process, but luckily some of the KiwiSaver providers can arrange this for you.
This means you do not have to navigate the paperwork for getting the superannuation transferred from Australia back into your KiwiSaver. Unfortunately, it’s only some providers that do this, but they do a very good job and it is seamless and stress-free. You can leave it to the experts that do this all the time, and I can arrange this with the right provider too.
The first step is to ensure that you are with the correct KiwiSaver provider.
You want to make sure that you have a progressive KiwiSaver provider that is focused on getting you good returns and providing you excellent service, including the ability to transfer your Australian superannuation scheme.
When selecting your provider, you will also be asked to select the funds that you want to have your superannuation invested in. In most cases for superannuation, the fund mix or asset allocation is based on your age and your tolerance to accept profits and losses. This can be quite complex, as too often KiwiSaver providers only look at the isolation of that KiwiSaver plan and not your overall financial situation. And because of this, it’s very difficult to have the right asset allocation.
Many advisors including me will often now recommend the life stages options that some KiwiSaver providers have. This is where the asset allocation is done for you automatically based on age, and it is adjusted as you get older to ensure that you have your assets invested in the right places.
It’s still not a perfect method as it is dealing with your KiwiSaver in isolation, but at least you know that it’s being managed and adjusted as you get older. And that allows you to focus any attention on other investments that you may have now or in the future.
The last thing that you need to do is to arrange to have your funds transferred from your Australian superannuation into your current KiwiSaver.
The KiwiSaver providers that we would recommend have specialists that can do this for you. To make it easy, use the review link above to complete some very basic details, and they we can discuss and switch your KiwiSaver.
This will allow me to get things implemented for you in a timely manner.
Things May Change …
This is the current status of KiwiSaver withdrawals and using your Australian superannuation.
There has been much discussion over the recent years on trying to get it so that you can withdraw your Australian superannuation via your KiwiSaver and in the same way; however, at this stage, that has not been able to get finalised and so we’re still in a situation where I have to tell you that you cannot use your Australian superannuation towards your deposit like you can with your KiwiSaver.
